Field of the Invention
The disclosed and claimed concept relates to a cart for resetting product supports (such as shelves) and, more particularly, to a cart for resetting product supports wherein a number of product support assemblies on the cart are generally at the same elevation as the product supports.
Background Information
Many products that are offered for sale are generally displayed on a product support. That is, a product support is commonly a shelf but may also be a cantilevered rod or set of rods (hereinafter and collectively a “peg”). Further, supplies that are similar to such products are also stored on shelves, pegs, and similar constructs. It is understood that the following discussion of a “resetting cart” provides a store as an example. The “resetting cart” is not limited to use in a commercial space but may also be used in other environments.
The following discussion will use food products stored on shelves as an example. Generally, food in a grocery is displayed in an organized manner. That is, similar products are displayed on a shelf adjacent to similar products. For example, one shelf may include several different types and/or brands of spaghetti sauce. Over time, customers remove product units from the shelf and the shelves must be restocked. “Restocking” is different from “resetting” a shelf.
“Resetting,” as used herein, means that all of the product units, or possibly all of the product units of a specific type, are removed/relocated to another location in the store and/or replaced in a different location on the shelf. This occurs, for example, when a store reorganizes. That is, all the spaghetti sauces are moved from aisle 1A to aisle 12B. Alternatively, a specific style of a product, e.g., a pumpkin spice flavored product, may be discontinued and all units of that particular style of a product are removed. Thus, as opposed to replacing a small number of product units, as during restocking, resetting a display is more labor intensive.
Presently, many stores use general-purpose carts for both restocking and resetting. That is, for example, a grocery store will use a number of grocery carts for a resetting operation. Assuming that a product is to be moved to a different aisle, the following generally occurs. A reset person typically removes all the product units from the first location and places all the product units into a number of grocery carts. Typically, this is not performed in an organized manner. That is, for example, a number of regular spaghetti sauce jars, a number of basil/garlic spaghetti sauce jars, and a number of tomato/vodka sauce jars are placed in the same grocery cart. The reset person is not likely to use a single grocery cart for each product type when there is a large variety of product types because the store would not want the aisles to be blocked with a train of grocery carts. Thus, when the reset person arrives at the new location, the reset person must sort the products as the units are placed on the shelf. Further, because storage space on a common grocery cart is at or below waist level, the reset person must bend and lift the product units. This motion is exacerbated if the product units are being placed on a lower shelf. That is, the reset person must identify the item to be moved, bend to take the item from the grocery cart, straighten up to remove the item from the grocery cart, bend down again to place the item on the shelf, then stand to repeat the process. These actions are time consuming and excessive repetition may cause injury to the reset person. This is a problem.
Further, a grocery cart typically is about as wide as half of an aisle. Thus, use of a grocery cart may block the aisle. Also, a store has a limited number of grocery carts, so use by a reset person means that a customer may not have a grocery cart. Similar problems arise when the resetting operation requires “editing” the product units. As used herein, “editing” means selectively removing a subset of product units from a larger set of similar product units. Product units may be edited for being past an expiration date or, as noted above, because a specific style of a product is discontinued, as well as other reasons. If a single grocery cart is used, the reset person will mix the “edited” product units with the items being re-shelved, thus requiring more sorting time, or, if the edited items are placed in a separate grocery cart, the reset person is using two grocery carts which blocks aisles and prevents customers from using the grocery carts.
There is, therefore, a need for a resetting cart that addresses the problems identified above.